Palisade’s Keyton Young, top left, recently surpassed 100 career victories, a mark that is easier to attain than in the past, but is still a good achievement. Former Grand Junction state champion Jesse Hoffschneider, bottom left, had 160 victories in his career. District 51’s Apollonia Middleton, below right on top, is the highest-ranked wrestler on the Phoenix.
D51’s Apollonia Middleton, top, wrestles teammate Violet Gray, bottom, in the 135-pound title match at the MLK Tournament on Saturday at Central High School. Middleton won with a 17-2 technical fall.
Tyler Archuleta, bottom, of Fruit Monument High School wrestles Angel Romero of Delta in the Warrior Classic at Grand Junction Central in Grand Junction, Colo., on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Archuleta pinned Romero. Photo by Barton Glasser
Palisade’s Keyton Young, top left, recently surpassed 100 career victories, a mark that is easier to attain than in the past, but is still a good achievement. Former Grand Junction state champion Jesse Hoffschneider, bottom left, had 160 victories in his career. District 51’s Apollonia Middleton, below right on top, is the highest-ranked wrestler on the Phoenix.
D51’s Apollonia Middleton, top, wrestles teammate Violet Gray, bottom, in the 135-pound title match at the MLK Tournament on Saturday at Central High School. Middleton won with a 17-2 technical fall.
Scott Crabtree
Tyler Archuleta, bottom, of Fruit Monument High School wrestles Angel Romero of Delta in the Warrior Classic at Grand Junction Central in Grand Junction, Colo., on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Archuleta pinned Romero. Photo by Barton Glasser
In the 1960s prep wrestlers averaged 20 matches per season. That number is easily half of what a wrestler may experience today.
Many wrestlers now win 30 to 40 matches a season, and reaching 100 career victories has become a milestone.
Palisade senior Keyton Young recorded his 105th cafreer victory last week. What made the accomplishment more commendable is one of his four seasons occurred during the onset of COVID-19. In that 2020-21 season, wrestlers were subjected to fewer matches.
That limitation becomes evident when looking at the win totals for the 2021 Class 4A state champions. In the 14 weight classes, each champion averaged 19 victories. The previous season the average was 37.
Young isn’t the only area wrestler to reach the 100-win mark this season.
Seniors Teagan Jacobs of Grand Valley and Meeker’s Connor Blunt have also surpassed 100 wins.
Other seniors within striking distance of 100 are: Meeker’s Tanner Musser (95) and Trae Kennedy (93); Fruita Monument’s Tyler Archuleta (94) and Central’s Devin Hickey (87).
Royce Uhrig, a junior, and state champion for Gunnison, continues his stellar career being only a couple victories away from the 100-win plateau. He is 98-1, with his only loss occurring his freshman year, a 4-2 loss to Weld Central’s three-time state champion Roberto Estrada in the state final.
Historically some wrestlers have posted incredible numbers.
In 2012, Grand Junction state champion Jesse Hoffschneider finished with an amazing 160 victories for the Tigers.
In 2019 Ponderosa four-time state champion Cohlton Schultz’ career record was 188-2.
In comparison, Colorado’s first four-time champion, Montrose’s Bob Thompson, completed his career with a 55-6-2 record in 1959.
â– â– â–
Montrose state champion Dmarian Lopez’s win streak is at 58 straight matches. Major highlights of this run include last season’s state final’s win against nationally ranked Matthew Moore of Mesa Ridge, and a victory over Brighton’s reigning Class 5A 285-pound state champion Dylan Bravo-Packer about two weeks ago.
â– â– â–
District 51’s girls team is ranked seventh by On the Mat and the Phoenix have seven individuals ranked in the top 10.
Apollonia Middleton is ranked No. 2 at 135 pounds and sports an impressive record of 24-1. Her only loss this season was a 14-0 major decision to Utah state champion Celeste Detoles of Westlake. Detoles is 63-1 in the past two seasons.
Laylah Casto (190) is ranked sixth, Laurel Hughes (140) and Kenya Contreras (145) are both seventh, Adalee NcNeil (170) is eighth and Mollie Dare (130) is ninth.
The Phoenix have a phenomenal freshman in Shylee Tuzon. She is ranked 10th at 155 pounds and already has a team-leading 30 victories.
The future looks bright for Coach Chad Dare’s team as the 28-member team features only four seniors.
â– â– â–
Cedaredge displayed the worthiness of their No. 4 2A ranking by easily winning the 27-team Fight at the Fork tournament. Tayton Nelson (126), Elias Hanson (144) and Ethan Toothaker (150) won titles. The Bruins scored 238.5 points. Mancos, ranked No. 3 in 2A, finished second with 155.5 and Gunnison, ranked No. 6 in 3A, followed with 148.
â– â– â–
Last weekend, small-town Meeker took on some of the state’s perennial wrestling powerhouses at the 43-team Top of the Rockies tournament. Again they finished in the top 10 (eighth) behind the likes of Pomona, Ponderosa and Pueblo East.
Meeker, with a student population of 221, represented themselves well against schools with nearly 1,500 pupils. State champion Judd Harvey and Blunt placed second and Musser placed fourth.
Grand Junction’s Dominic Jones did well to bring home a sixth-place medal from arguably the state’s most competitive tournament each season.
